Even though he decided to call the delay in the appointment of a new Clerk ‘modest’, John Bercow has just suffered a humiliating climb down in the Commons.
The Speaker was heckled as he tried to justify his decision to appoint Carol Mills. When he said ‘a number of colleagues have since expressed disquiet’, Michael Fabricant shouted ‘HA!’.
He continued, but the Speaker’s authority has been seriously bruised by this episode. He styled himself as the champion of Parliament, empowering backbenchers. But pushing the Commons too far has led to those empowered backbenchers turning on him.
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